Qttick-btjrniire delay powder



Patented June 4, 1929.

WILLIAM: T. INGRAI-IAM, OF DOVER, NEW JERSEY.

QUICK-BURNING DELAY POWDER.

No Drawing.

Application filed. November 8, 1923. Serial No. 673,440.

(GRANTED UNDER. THE ACT 03 MARCH 3, 1883, AS AMENDED APRIL 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757.)

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

5 The subject of the present invention is a quick burning delay powder.

The primary object of this invention is the provision of means whereby the size of a delay charge may be increased without decreasing the speed of burning.

lVith the foregoing and other objects in view, my invention resides in the novel arrangement and combination of ingredients and in the details of preparation hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Heretofore black powder has been almost universally used as a delay element and pellets constructed of this material as delay charges.

Black powder, however, has certain serious disadvantages. A pellet of black powder when used to obtain delay action in the function of a fuse must be sufliciently .iassive to resist blasting by the primer explosion and burn with a consistent speed of burning in order to produce the duration of delay desired. The size of the delay pellet, then, is limited by the speed of burning of the black powder and by the duration of the delay desired. Since the speed of burning of black powder is comparatively slow delay charges made of black powder, then, must necessarily be comparatively small. Such charges are liable to be fractured by the primer explosion.

Considerable experimentation has been conducted to obtain a more satisfactory delay element. As a result of such experi-- mentation, it has been found that if fulmipound is mixed with the black powder in the proper proportions, a very satisfactory delay composition will be obtained, and with such a mixture it is possible to make a delay pellet approximately three times the size of a pellet made from black powder alone and at the same time produce an equally short delay.

A composition which has proven successful in practice 1s as follows:

Fulminate of mercury Slow burning black powder 10% I Speed of burning.

Seconds v v per inch. Black shrapnel powder 2. 23 Delay powder 14. 06 Mercury fulminate 90% 88 Delay black powder 10% It will be seen therefore that a delay com- I position such as forms the subject of this invention,

will burn considerably more rapidly than the black powder composition heretofore used and that with such a composition a comparatively large pellet may be employed.

While I prefer fulminate of mercury as a quick burningingredient, any other quick burning composition may be substituted therefor in the proper proportions.

I claim A delay powder embodying a mixture of fulminate of mercury and black powder-in the proportions of 90% and 10%, respec-' tively.

WILLIAM'T. INGRAHAM. 

